


open flames

by Thonir



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 04:54:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5321243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thonir/pseuds/Thonir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of my character's romancing of Cait as we tromp around the Commonwealth together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	open flames

**Author's Note:**

> My sole survivor's name is Sam. Here's a screenshot of him and Cait: http://imgur.com/UcqZdHO

So Diamond City hadn’t been the great green jewel Sam was promised, and once he became aware of the fact that the detective Nick Valentine wasn’t even in his office, and that the security used brute force to solve problems, he wanted out. So when Sam approached a guard and heard about the Combat Zone, he knew just where to go to try and make the Commonwealth a little safer for all its inhabitants. A bar for raiders only seemed like the perfect challenge. 

+++++

Fighting through the wreckage of the city he’d known wasn’t easy, but soon enough, the Combat Zone stood in front of him. Sam figured that they’d have better security, but raiders weren’t known for being the most intelligent of the bunch. He strode in, glancing at the kneeling and watched the cage match finish. The announcer was ecstatic that the girl currently parading around the rim of the cage had won.  
“And that concludes this round! Cait is the undisputed winner!” As he finished talking, Sam had caught the attention of a raider.  
“What the… he ain’t supposed to be in here! Rip him to shreds!” The crowd of raiders came at him, guns blazing. Once Sam had taken care of them, he walked into the cage, and confronted the ghoul host and fighter.  
“Is it over? Well, that could’ve gone worse,” the ghoul rasped. The fighter chuckled, “Seemed like quite a performance from where I was standing.” Sam raised an eyebrow and nodded as the Ghoul, Tommy, explained their situation. Raiders had holed up here, Tommy had Cait on a contract, and she was fighting for their entertainment.   
“You caught the end of that bout. What’d you think of Cait’s work?” Tommy asked.  
“She’s clearly talented.” Sam replied. He had been impressed with what he saw.  
“See. Least someone knows skill when they see it.” Cait smirked at Tommy, glad that the newcomer had sided with her.  
“It ain’t your fighting skills I’m concerned with.” Tommy sighed. “So here’s my predicament. I suddenly got no audience. No audience, no income. And if you ain’t bringin in caps, Cait, you’re no longer an asset to me. So, here’s what I’m thinkin’. What if you took over her contract?” He nodded at Sam.  
“Me? And him?” Cait spat. She looked over at Tommy, who ignored her.  
“I’d like to know what she thinks of this.” Sam said.  
“Yeah! Don’t I get a say in all this?”  
“That ain’t how a contract works. Plus, if you stay, you’d have to stay with me, no one else to talk to.” The ghoul gave her a knowing look, and she recoiled, “Yeah, point taken.” Sam looked between the two of them, and Tommy nodded.   
“Well, let’s go then.” Cait said.

+++++

Cait didn’t really know what to think of Sam. He did well in a fight, with a rifle or pistol, standing back as she hacked through things. But her looked ridiculous in his Silver Shroud coat and scarf, intimidating people. She sassed him, but the way he looked at her sometimes, it made her feel that tension growing between them.  
“We’d move faster if you’d keep your eyes on the road instead of me arse.” That remark would win her a small embarrassed smile and eyes that were anywhere but her. As they crept around the ruins of the world, she couldn’t help but watch his hands deftly open a lock, without breaking a single bobby pin. Even being impressed by some of things he got open, she’d follow it up with a, “I’ll give you some pointers next time.”, or a similar insult as he rifled through the contents of what he’d opened, sometimes mocking him for picking up all the useless junk he did. But when he fixed up guns and his armor, she could see why he hauled all that stuff, and was glad he at least didn’t make her carry it. And even when she felt the end coming, he’d rush over in his power armor or otherwise, and she could feel his concern practically emanating off of him as he used a stimpack on her, watching her struggle to her feet.  
“I’m fine, you know,” she’d say. He’d nod and they would move on, killing those who thought they could best the team they made.

+++++

The first time Cait came to him with something other than snark was stunning. He was woozy from the radiation the ghouls in the National Guard Training Yard had emitted, and he barely caught her words.  
“Hey, can I tell you something?” Cait asked, looking around, not meeting his eyes.   
“Of course, I always have time for you.” They sat in the decrepit building, the rustling sounds of far off ghouls ignored by both as she told him her life story. His hand tighten on a fallen metal beam as she gave details of her time with the slavers she had been sold to. Sam looked her in the eye after she admitted she had killed her parents after all those years for selling her to the slavers.   
“It was justice.” His voice was low, masking his anger just barely.  
“Was it?” She replied, looking off into the distance, lost in memories. Sam watched her carefully, and promised that he’d be there for her, no matter what happened. He took her hand and squeezed it, before she pulled away.  
“Enough getting sappy. Let's get this place cleared out so we can get paid.”

+++++

They were back in Diamond City after a few days, Sam needed something from the market. He exited his power armor and went to go talk to the doctor there. Cait followed, getting lost in a haze once she sat down to wait for him. She listened to the sellers hawk their wares, and was drawn to Chem-I-Care.   
“Psycho, and be quick about it.” She fumbled with injecting it, and the fog hanging over her cleared as she walked back to the doctor’s clinic.  
“Well, that doesn’t leave anything to the imagination, does it?” She called to Sam as he paused before getting redressed after being healed. He blushed and struggled to put his Shroud costume back on.  
“I thought you’d be…” Sam stammered.  
“At the Dugout, or something? Nope, right here waiting for you, love.”  
“At least turn around!” He said. Cait smirked and did so as he stood behind his Power Armor, sliding his clothes back on. He got in, and she gave him a knowing smile, knowing he was still blushing under all that metal.

+++++

As they walked through the outskirts of Boston, through trees that stabbed the sky like harpoons, it started to rumble, the sky turning a sickly green.  
“Radiation storm, let’s get inside.” Sam said. They ducked inside an old cabin, listening to the thunder and watching the lightning arc between the clouds. He exited his armor, sitting with his back against the wall. He got a bottle of whiskey out of his pack and opened it, taking a drink before passing it over to Cait. As the storm drew on, Cait could feel the alcohol getting to her, the bottle now discarded after being passed many times. She sighed.  
“I need to tell you something.” She adjusted the sleeves of her combat armor, fidgeting as she waited for his response.  
“I’m all ears.” He said.  
“You know, to get through all the stuff at the Combat Zone, the fights and the crowd…” She drifted off.  
“Yeah?”  
“I’ve been using Psycho. Lots of it. Behind your back even. I can feel it clouding up my judgement and making everything hazy, even without the alcohol. I think I’m gonna die if I keep using it.”  
“Can we do anything?” Sam’s apathy had faded, and there was immediate concern in his voice. It warmed her heart a bit.  
“I think so. I heard about this old vault, Vault 95, that was full of addicts. And they have a machine that can cure you of anything.”  
“You think that’ll help?”   
“Trying to go to doctors and using Addictol hasn't so this is the last choice I have.”  
“Let’s go then.” His voice was firm.  
“We don’t have to, you don’t have to do this for me— “  
“We’re going, Cait.” He cut her off, his voice determined. He got back into his armor. The storm had finally dissipated as they had been speaking. They set off into the dark night of the Commonwealth, now closer than Cait thought they’d ever be. 

+++++

Cait was almost scared of Sam as he mechanically took out the Gunners within the Vault. He was utterly determined, his face hardening with a resolve that she hadn’t seen before. Once they reached the clean room, her hands were shaking, both from apprehension and withdrawal.  
“Alright, I get to take a seat, and whenever you’re ready, you start up the process.” Sam nodded, and Cait sat in the chair, syringes and other medical equipment hovering above her. He pressed a few buttons, and she felt the dull burn inside her roar to life, like she was being purified through flames. She screamed and was panting, slumping down into the chair once it was finished. She stood on wobbly legs, and saw Sam’s face, really saw it, for the first time. She looked over his glasses, his slight wrinkles, and into his blue eyes.  
“Wow. It’s like I’m seeing for the first time. Have colors always been that bright?” Cait looked around, looking at everything she could. Sam chuckled.   
“I’m glad you’re okay.” He smiled, and she smiled back at him.  
“Now you’re stuck with me for life, love.”

+++++

The last time Cait felt uneasy was after they had cleared out ghouls at an old trailer park. Same had exited his armor, its bulk taking up room in the same trailer. His hands worked quickly to pick a lock, and he was looking through things when she approached him.  
“You know, I’ve got to tell you something.”  
He looked away from the items in the safe, at her. “Of course, Cait. You can tell me anything.”  
She sighed, and looked him in the eye, “You know, usually when I put all my cards on the table I get screwed over. But you, you’ve come through for me. You’ve done all this for me, and haven’t asked for a thing in return. I don’t know if this is coming out right, but, I trust you. I really do. I don’t let me guard down, ever. But you’ve made me feel like it’s okay. Like it’s safe. You know what I’m getting at?”  
He smiled and stood. “Of course. I love you, Cait.”   
“You do? I mean, I know that I was feeling something, but I didn’t know if it was mutual, or if that was what it was, and I just— “  
Sam went to her, kissing her gently as she stammered.   
“Now what did you go and do that for?” She asked. He smiled as she leaned up to kiss him again.  
“I love you, Cait.”  
“I love you too, Sam.”  
Cait looked at him, and they kissed, their tension releasing finally into action as they rushed to finally show their affections for each other. Sam laid her down on the weathered mattress in the old trailer, and traced his fingers over her skin, kissing each and every scar from her use of Psycho, the syringe marks dotting her arms. Cait knew that this was going to be like nothing she had at the Combat Zone, high, boring fucks that she wanted to end as soon as they had begun. But Sam, with his somehow gentle but insistent actions, he was something else. He would always be something else, a partner and lover that she would fight through thick and thin with.

The rain accompanied them, drizzling on the rusted metal of the trailer as the night drew on.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This is my first work that I've published onto a site like this. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
